April 28, 2021
Excerpt from my spiritual journal.
"My child, I know these days are not easy, but you must persist. The enemy's desire is to have you. None can be taken from my hand. This is true. But you can get very side-tracked. You can wander in dry places. I know that you know this, and yet you persist. Try my child to stay on the straight and narrow road. I know these things are tempting. But their joy is fleeting. Work with what you know. That is enough. I have graced you. You are blessed with many gifts and talents. But not all are used for the Kingdom. When you work with love to make something for a loved one, I am there. Perfection is not the goal. Love is the goal, the answer to all. Trust in me my child. For I know best what is needed in your life. Trust in me, and I will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun. Trust in me, and you will know which road to take. Trust in me and I will guide you and show you as it is written, your way of life. Trust in me and me alone, for the enemy of the world is near, and his desire is to have you. None can be removed from my hand. Yet you can be distracted, as you have seen. The world is full of good things, but they are not all good for you. It is yours to discern: which is the better way? Where is the more? Which is the way to give most the Glory to God? This is your way that I have prepared for you, that you may walk in it.
Trust in me my child. For I am
The Way,
The Truth, and
The Life.
Only in me can you find
true happiness,
true love,
true joy.
Only in me.
Now go to your day my child and know this...I am near."
I have been struggling - art courses, a bird series I was referred to, television, internet - so many distractions.
And I have felt it in my being, unsettled, nervous, jumpy.
Now I am at Peace. Thank you, Lord. You have shown me the way by your words.
Help me, bless me with the Grace to walk in it.
In Jesus' Holy Name.
Amen.
"For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.'
Ephesians 2:10
FIRST WEEK
[23] PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION
Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.
From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it.
For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so on in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.
DRAW ME INTO YOUR FRIENDSHIP
The SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
A Literal Translation & A Contemporary Reading
